Dr. Alok “Dr K.” Kanojia offers live talks on Twitch as HealthyGamer_GG. However, his conversations with a deceased WoW streamer got him into trouble.
What kind of doctor is that? Dr. Alok Kanojia is an American psychiatrist who goes by the name “Dr. K” online. Dr. K struggled with video game addiction while in college and later founded the organization “Healthy Gamer,” which provides non-medical support and advice in the gaming community.
Dr. K also streams on Twitch under the name HealthyGamer_GG. In his streams, he talks to internet personalities, including the well-known streamers Asmongold and xQc. Although Dr. K. deliberately does not describe the conversations as therapy sessions, their therapeutic nature has long been the subject of discussion.
One of Dr. K’s interlocutors was WoW streamer Byron “Reckful” Bernstein, who died in 2020. The doctor is now apparently in trouble for this.
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Unclear relationships between Reckful and Dr. K
What difficulties are there now? As reported on July 23, 2024 via X.com, the Board of Registration in Medicine, the licensing body for medical practitioners in Massachusetts, has taken disciplinary action against Kanojia, apparently as a result of a complaint filed in February 2022.
The subject is the relationship between Dr. K and Reckful. A publicly accessible document on the Massachusetts state website lists a total of 6 “interviews” that the doctor conducted with the content creator on Twitch.
Topics covered included suicidality, depression and borderline personality disorder. In one of the conversations, the two discussed whether Dr. K is a therapist or a friend of Reckful. In a final live stream, the Twitch streamer mentioned that they would continue their conversations offline.
The Board of Registration in Medicine found that Kanojia’s behavior undermined “public confidence in the integrity of the medical profession.” As a result, Dr. K’s medical license was “reprimanded.” This is roughly equivalent to a warning or reprimand in German (via laws on the Internet).
However, the Board also found that, given Reckful’s deteriorating mental health, Dr. K followed referral guidelines, including recommending that he seek treatment and providing guidance on how to access emergency services.
Dr. K is allowed to continue practicing
What consequences Dr. K? Essentially, the psychiatrist has only received a warning. His license is not in jeopardy, so he can continue to practice and he will not have to pay a fine. However, this warning is now permanently attached to the license and can be viewed publicly (via grgblaw.com).
A post on HealthyGamerGG’s subreddit states that corrective measures had already been taken regarding problematic aspects of the “interviews” prior to the 2022 complaint, including a pre-interview meeting to set boundaries and the establishment of an advisory board.
In the German-speaking Twitch and YouTube scene, there has also been a stir in the past about doctors who also appear as content creators on the Internet. You can read more about it here: Psychologist creates video about Twitch streamer – she calls it “maximum moral rubbish”